The district council is set to spend £50,000 simply to find out whether it can actually build the tennis courts it has already committed to deliver, or whether they will need to be moved elsewhere.

Kenilworth's new swimming pools opened in Abbey Fields in July, but crucially the outdoor tennis courts which were used as a compound during the building works are yet to be restored.

When planning permission was granted for the leisure centre - for the second time - it was agreed the facilities would be reinstated within three months of the centre being built.

But with that deadline now passed and no building plans in place, Warwick District Council has signed off on the budget for an investigation into the land around the pools.

£50,000 from the 'corporate assets reserve' will be used on ground surveys and to test a 'no-dig' construction plan for the courts.

Officers will then need to come back to cabinet to discuss next steps and costs before any decision or funding commitment is made on construction.

Liberal Democrat leader, Cllr Alan Boad, and independent Cllr Paul Wightman both told cabinet - the Green-Labour administration at the council - that courts should be built elsewhere in Kenilworth if they do not return to Abbey Fields.

But Cllr Chris King warned the project is not a simple one.

"We cannot afford to even put a fork in the ground, I mean a dining fork in the ground, for fear of Historic England," he told cabinet members.

"So whether we can then afford to look at a completely new site, Cllr Boad, and then build brand new courts on that, I don't know.

"And I don't think we should give a commitment to do that because that's way beyond anything we've talked about so far.

"Our commitment at the moment is to investigate what we can, how far we can go with the existing site."

Cllr King also commented "a lot of provision has already gone Kenilworth's way in the last 10 years or so," adding "there were tennis courts there and we will do whatever we can to replace them".

Portfolio holder for safer, healthier and active communities, Cllr Jim Sinnott, said cabinet was already considering alternative locations.

"I take it on board completely," he said.

"After stage one we need to look at value for money and how that is going to be shown.

"Officers will look at other venues if this becomes unworkable.

"We have the commitment to provide tennis courts, we will provide tennis courts, and we will do it in the most grown-up, mature way we can."

Council reports also revealed the job of replacing the courts in Abbey Fields had been made harder during the leisure centre build.

"The current court composition introduces additional uncertainty because, during the swimming pool works, the contractor installed a temporary layer of impermeable asphalt," they said.

"Consultant advice is that this layer and the previous court surface cannot be separated and that resurfacing will therefore require removal."

When the new contracts for the pools' construction were approved, the tennis courts and duck feeding station were omitted due to the huge increase in costs for the project.